Patrimônio afetivo e fotografia: relicários da memória de idosos do Asylo de Mendigos de Pelotas.

Abstract

This dissertation had as objective to analyze the narratives of older people who live in asylum, their memories, memory objects and the relation established between photography and narrative. For that were heard and photographed 13 residents of the Asylum of Beggars of Pelotas, an institution that houses low-income elders, over twelve months of conviviality. Result of an interventional research, this work is inserted in the field of memory and identity and uses as support the visual Anthropology, not just as a method, but as a narrative proposal, fruit of appropriations by the narrators themselves. It was perceived that the photography contributed to the memory work and to the fluency of the narratives, and that, by valuing the image of the elders, it works as an invitation to think about the categories age, asyling, loneliness, health, home, among others. Moreover, from the images generated it is possible to present or re-present scenes from a context that maybe does not populate the imaginary of society broadly, the institutionalized elderly. These images, produced in conjunction with the narrators, served to communicate aspects extremely valued in this life stage. From these value statements were identified: photography as reliquary of the memory, death as a present category, health and life as patrimony, the narrative exercise as beneficial process of identification and self-valorization of the identity of the elder and the assignment of exceptional value to the memories of the past.